Algae

[boogie]

Hi - couldn't find out where else to post this question and did several searches and could not find what I need.

I have an old 125 tank up and running for 10 years. Most of the time, it's been filled with only a very large fire eel (24 - 29") and 1 cory and 1 common pleco.

I decided to ramp it up to the max and really overhaul it. I spent tons of $. Bought expensive lighting, tons of live plants, a lot of hiding places and wood. Gave common pleco away, bought 2 new cories - who want nothing to do with the old one but also got L333, L66, Lsomething like 333 (have it on my comp elsewhere), banjo cat, 6 glass cats, glass knife, 2 rope fish, 1 bristlenose pleco, elephant nose, baby whale. I know it's a lot, but all are very small so the ammonia is easy to control and I have 6 fluvals and one penguin (always have overdone the filtration). Plus I will plan on simple 10-15% water changes per week - will not be vacuuming now because of plants, just taking water out and putting new water back in. Just hope the eel leaves all the goodies alone. I feed live brown/blood worms.

Like I said, I put in this really expensive lighting and plants and now the acrylic tank is starting to get speckled with algae which I never had before with the common pleco and previous poor lighting.

Is there any cat I can get that would take care of the algae and leave the plants alone? I realize I have over stocked my tank, but my other tanks are overstocked also, which I take care of with every other day feeding and 1 X per week water changes.

I realize I cannot feed this tank every other day - they need every day. How can I now control this algae without scrapping it everyday? Also, what else do you think I should feed this tank? I try to put some flakes in and no one seems to want them and I put a couple of algae wafers in and no one seems to want them, but then again, almost all of my fish are night eaters. Thanks for your advice and don't worry about reprimanding about how many fish I have - not giving them back.

[ahodge84]

I would just get a couple more BNs. Mine do a fine job cleaning algae.

[L number Banana]

Hi, any idea what kind of algae? Long stringy? hard green dots? red fuzzy? blueish-greenish-slimey (hope not!)? The type of algae kind of determines What treatment and who might eat it too.

Also at some point, the plants will be using the ammonia and all the nutrients before the algae can use it. Are you using and ferts or co2? Seachem's Flourish Excel is an algacide (sp?) but is NOT sold as that. It's liquid carb but with a syringe, you can knock out a stubborn algae spot.

The tank may also be going through a new bloom because of so much changing, especially the lights - just went through that myself. Did you change any of the filter type things like rinsing the biofilter in tapwater? That will kill all the happy bacteria and reset your system. Sorry, you may already know all these things but it may help others

Let me know what kind of algae it looks like and maybe I can help you more. My old tanks are filter-less and no algae my new wonderful tank has a filter and I've had to battle just about every kind, sometimes with just waiting.....that's the hardest treatment

[boogie]

Thanks for reply. Hard green dots. And yes, before I got all the new fish, I did a total rehaul. I did clean all the filters, so I know I've done too much. It's almost like the more I know the more I think I can get away with and the more I screw up. And none of my plecos are interested in the algae. There is a lot of light and everyone is all upset - being new, all sorts of changes, I keep re-arranging things, I've had to separate fish with separator and they still get thru. Lots of stress, hopefully most will make it. Anyway, just don't need the hassle of all this new algae when I only have algae cuz I got the lights for the plants to help control the nitrates...................................................... I put plant substrate over my existing gravel, another no-no, but my pet store said do it anyway and did add some fertilizer tablets, which I'm sure the algae loves also. My plants are not as happy as I expected with all this money going into them, I have to say. Some are brownish, some I've just thrown. Just have to see which ones survive. Now I'm worried that the plants are going to kill my fish by using up all the oxygen in the tank at night - no one told me of this before - it was just - get plants will take care of all your problems...Then I read an article on this site which states that the fish could die form o2 depletion. Whatever. Anyway, hard green dots that a regular pleco would probably love, but not going to get. I am surprised that at leas 1/2 of my fish seem perfectly happy - it's just the other half. Check water perimeters daily.

[L number Banana]

Don't panic The plants are a wonderful thing in many ways.
If you have all the regular water things like movement etc, the oxygen doesn't get low enough to worry the fish. If you have a rushing stream kind of set-up for high oxygen fish, you probably wouldn't have too many plants anyway. Take a look at the tanks in this thread and you will never worry again - he's got a lot of fish! Beware it's really picture heavy but it's like a dream slideshow.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=21831

For the hard green dots you can turn the water movement off for a few minutes and syringe Seachem's Flourish Excel Liquid Carbo in a slow dribble across the glass. Use the maximum amount in the syringe for what the label recommends as a first dose. In a few days maybe a week, the dots turn kind of orange and you can just brush it off and vacuum it up. The manual way is to use a razor blade to give it a scrape while you wait for the balance to happen. If you water's good as far as readings go, relax and watch nature work

You can also take a leisurely browse at the http://www.ukaps.org It's UK Aquatic Plant Society. You might be able to look up your plants there or somewhere else on the web to see which ones are a little sensitive to changes. My spiral Vals pretty much melted -turned to mush and faded away - when I first got them but I ignored them and now they are nice and lush with lots of baby runners spreading out.

You may go through a green water bloom too because of the high nutrients etc so if it starts to happen, don't panic. It too shall pass
It looks like pea soup so kind of freaky but simply cover the surface with cheapie floating plants for a week or so and poof gone - the key there is to use the type of plants that need lots of feeding. You can even use a houseplant with the soil cleaned off the roots and clipped to the side of the tank with the roots dangling in. Pothos and spathophylum (peace lily) work quite quickly. Mini-roses will clean out a backyard pond in record time - HEAVY feeders! Tomato plants are heavy feeders too but stay away from anything that has the possibility to transfer poisons to the fish.

Another option is called a black out. It's exactly what it sounds like - paper up the sides and don't peek for 3-5 days. No feeding and a BIG water change to clean up all the dead algae bits. Don't bother doing this for your little green dots, it's only really needed for the pea soup thing.

I'm still learning about catfish etc but guess how I know so much about algae fixes? Been there done that! You're not alone, my current new tank has all the bells and whistles that I learned about and it's been the biggest pain but it's provided the most education.
I still rearrange my tanks like a madwoman but I'm a gardener - nothing is ever 'finished'...

Keep up with your regular partial water changes(nitrite/nitrate testing) and only 'clean' your filters in a bucket of old tank water and you'll get the upper hand. Sorry for such a long yadayada but I know how frustrating it can be AND how nice it can be when all finally goes well.
Good luck, I'll keep my eyes peeled for any other green dot solutions for you.
Cheers
PS take some pictures so you remember your progress!

[L number Banana]

! Didn't notice acrylic tank before - Don't use a razor blade for the dots. Stick with the seachem excel.
And you can still vacuum with plants - just gentle and with a small diameter tube. I tie mine to a stick and the stick is a 1/2 longer than the tube ending. I don't vacuum in the back where it's heavily planted, just the front where everyone feeds.

Maybe you could try asking the feeding question separately - I'm sure there's lots of cat people that could help there if people like me didn't hog this thread - oops

[longplay]

I had an algae problem before, too.
Somebody suggest me some products and i start with it.
I don't know can you buy it in country where you are, but i'm using easy carbo and profito. After 2 weeks, algae has gone and plants are beautifull.
Regards

[L number Banana]

Longplay wrote:

but i'm using easy carbo and profito.

We can't get Easy Carbo in Canada/US but the liquid Carbo (Flourish Excel) from Seachem seems to work the same. I'm not familiar with Profito, I'll have to look that one up.

Cheers

[longplay]

Well, i don't know am i alowed to tipe this. So, if its not ok, sorry.
All i was writing there is produced by easy life factory in Netherlands. So, if you like to try those products just visit http://www.easylife.nl
I am buying those online, too. But from suplier in my country. I found those products great for plants.

[L number Banana]

Great tip Longplay!

Unfortunately Easy Carbo doesn't have a distributor in Canada or the US. I emailed them a while ago after I saw Glenny's tanks (see thread mentioned above). I can buy it from a UK supplier but the shipping was crazy Maybe someday...
This is the one I use for my plants and algae control. Maybe much the same? http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... Excel.html

[longplay]

Well i am sorry to hear that, because in 30 years i'm in "aquarium waters" that is best thing i'm ever seen.

[racoll]

boogie, I think you need to look at why you are getting algae in the first place.

Seems here that you disturbed the delicate balance between light, nutrients, algae and plants when you refurbished the tank.

Simply speaking, plants need three key things - light, carbon dioxide and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and others).

These three elements need to be in the correct balance to allow plants to grow. None of the three should be in short supply. When plants have no limiting factors, and the levels of all these three elements is slightly above or equal to that required by the plants (but not in great excess), then the plants tend to grow very well - this growth actually seems to inhibit algae.

If any of these are limited, then the plants are unable to grow to their potential, reducing the inhibition of the algae, and allowing this algae to capitalise on the abundance of the other factors that are in excess. Algae is very adaptable and good at doing this. There are also many types of algae, so there is a form to suit every situation.

What seems to have happened is that the plants are unable to use the light from the new lights, because there is no carbon dioxide source, so the algae have made full use of this extra light.

You can try these liquid carbon sources, but it will be expensive long-term. The other options are to either reduce the lighting, or purchase a carbon dioxide system.

Any of that make sense?

[boogie]

Thanks, I'm trying, it's just not going so well. My fish seem fine. I know my nitrates are high and I read that plants can't do well in high nitrates. I do weekly water changes - at least 15 - 20%. I clean one of my filters per week (I have 7). My lights, may be too strong, so I'm going to try to cut it down for a while. I have more than one algae now. There is brown slime on the leaves and some green string algae. I cut out a lot of plants today - at least 60% of the leaves that were bad and it looks better but that doesn't help the cause. I will not go into C02. I do have liquid stuff that is supposed to help with C02 requirements. My ammonia is 0, my nitrites are 0, my ph is 6.8 - 7 and I refuse to check nitrates cuz it's always super high, even with water changes, and the water from tap is not high in nitrates. I do feed my fish every day, which is probably part of the cause, but they are new fish so I think they should eat daily. I do have too many fish, but at least I keep three of the 4 main tests in check. Thanks for all the great info. I just ordered Seachem Florish cuz of the info given - maybe that will help.

[racoll]

Yes, high nitrates plus powerful new lights and no CO2 will lead to big algae problems.

My best suggestion in the short term is perhaps to only have the lights on for say six hours a day.

What kind of lights are they by the way?